Data Privacy Statement

Vision Financial Solutions Ltd is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We wish to be transparent on how we process your data and show you that we are accountable to and in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in relation to not only processing your data but ensuring you understand your rights as a customer.  

It is the intention of this privacy statement to explain to you the information practices of Vision Financial Solutions Ltd in relation to the information we collect about you.  These terms will take effect from 25^th May 2018.

1. Who are we?

Vision Financial Solutions Ltd is a financial advisory firm which specialises in the provision of advice in relation to mortgages, mortgage protection, term assurance, critical illness, income protection and pensions.  We are a mortgage credit and insurance intermediary firm which means we act as the “middle man” between you, our client, and our product providers which are the financial/lending institutions and insurance companies.

2. How you can contact us.
   • by phoning us on 01 5320082
   • by writing to us at 95 Ranelagh Village, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
   • by emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
   • if you have a specific query about this Data Privacy notice you can contact our Data Protection Officer on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Our Data Protection Officer oversees how we collect, use, share and protect your information to ensure your rights are fulfilled.  We you contact us to ask about your information, we may ask you to identify yourself.  This is to protect your information.
   • by writing to the Data Protection Officer, 95 Ranelagh Village, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
   • If you do not agree with our response you can write to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner:

                      Office of the Data Protection Commissioner                   Phone: 00 353 578683757

                       Station Road                                                                                                         

                       Portarlington                                                                                             

                       Co. Laois                                                                   

                       R32 AP23                                                                                 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

                                                                                                                         Web:    www.dataprotection.ie

3. Purpose for collecting and processing your data.

The information we collect and hold about you depends on the products and services you use.  This information includes personal information you give us when you are looking for a product or service, personal information we collect automatically such as your IP address, the date and time you accessed our services when you visited our website and personal information we receive from sources such as lender affordability calculators and insurance quotation tools.

The chart below outlines what personal information we hold about you and how we use it.

4. Why we are processing your data? Our legal basis.

We at Vision Financial Solutions Ltd need to collect personal data from you in order for us to provide you mortgages and associated insurance products such mortgage protection, life assurance, critical illness, income protection and pension products and services. Our reason (lawful reason) for processing your data under the GDPR is for the performance of your contract:

• Legal basis – Vision Financial Solutions Ltd needs to process your data as this is necessary in relation to a contract of mortgage finance or associated insurances or pension to which you, the individual has entered into or because you, the individual has asked for something to be done so you can enter into a contract.

From the 25^th May 2018 all new clients of Vision Financial Solutions Ltd will need to consent to the processing of their data.

In any event, Vision Financial Solutions Ltd are committed to ensuring that the information we collect and use is appropriate for this purpose, and does not constitute an invasion of your privacy. 

5. How will Vision Financial Solutions use the personal data it collects about me?

Vision Financial Solutions will process (collect, store and use) the information you provide in a manner compatible with the EU’s GDPR. We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up to date, and not keep it for longer than is necessary.  The chart outlined earlier gives you details as to why and how we use your personal data.

6. Special Categories of personal data

When we collect any special categories of personal data (e.g. health, religious beliefs, racial, ethnic origin – financial information is not classified as special categories of personal data) – we will ensure to obtain your explicit consent in line with the GDPR requirements.

7. Who are we sharing your data with?

We may pass your personal data on to third-party service providers contracted to Vision Financial Solutions Ltd in the course of dealing with you. Any third parties that we may share your data with are obliged to keep your details securely, and to use them only to fulfil the service they provide on your behalf. When they no longer need your data to fulfil this service they will dispose of the details.

If we pass your sensitive personal data onto third party service providers contracted to Vision Financial Solutions Ltd, we will only do so once we have obtained your explicit consent, unless we are legally required to do otherwise.  The third parties that we pass your personal data to are:

• Financial institutions/Lenders with whom we hold a written appointment with;
• Life Assurance companies with whom we hold a written appointment with;
• Introducers of business to us with whom we may share details of any transactions arranged for you;
• Our home insurance partner to whom with your consent, we forward details of your home insurance requirements for the purposes of arranging your mortgage;
• Irish and EU regulatory and enforcement bodies such as the Central Bank of Ireland, an Garda Siochána, the courts, fraud prevention agencies and other bodies to enable us cooperate by law as we are required to do so;
• We use the services of ID Pal, a digital Know your Customer solution, that enables us to verify the identity our clients so as to comply with anti-money laundering requirements;
• We use the services of iPing, an IT support company, and information security service providers such as Microsoft and Intellicom;
• We engage the services of Money Advice, a software company, that provide us with a comprehensive quotation and customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

If we transfer personal data to a third party or outside the EU, we as the data controller will ensure the recipient (processor or another controller) has provided the appropriate safeguards and on condition that enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for you the data subject are available.

8. Security Measures to safeguard your personal information

We use internal technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access to help ensure the appropriate use of your personal information and to maintain data accuracy.  These security measures include password protecting of your personal information, physical protection of the premises, firewalls, encryption on all company devices and strong security protection procedures. 

9. Data Subjects Rights:

Vision Financial Solutions Ltd facilitate you, our clients, rights in line with our Data Protection Policy and the Subject Access Request procedure. This is available on request. 

Your rights as a data subject

At any point while we are in possession of or processing your personal data, you, the data subject, have the following rights:

• Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
• Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
• Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.
• Right of portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
• Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
• Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.
• Right to judicial review: in the event that Vision Financial Solutions Ltd refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why.

All of the above requests will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved as we have indicated in the processing of your personal data.

Additional information we are providing you with to ensure we are transparent and fair with our processing.

10. Retention of your personal data

Data will not be held for longer than is necessary for the purpose(s) for which they were obtained.  Vision Financial Solutions Advisors will process personal data in accordance with our retention schedule. This retention schedule has been governed by our regulatory body, The Central Bank of Ireland, the requirements of the Financial Services Ombudsman and our internal governance.

11. Complaints

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by Affinity Advisors or how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the supervisory authority and Vision Financial Solutions Ltd Data Protection Officer/GDPR Owner.

12. Failure to provide further information

If we are collecting your data for a specific contract and you cannot provide this data the consequences of this could mean the contract cannot be completed or details are incorrect.

13. Automated Decision Making and Profiling

Automated Decision Making

We, in conjunction with lenders and life assurance companies use calculators and quotation tools to establish your affordability for credit and when providing quotations to you for associated insurance products.  Whilst some providers may carry out these processes on an automated basis, we operate with human intervention and take into account information you provided us in your application form for a mortgage or proposal form for an insurance product, your health history, your credit history, other credit facilities you have with financial institutions, amount of mortgage requested, amount of life assurance request, the repayment or cover period etc.  If you disagree with any of these decisions please contact us via the channels outlined in Section 2 above.

Risk Profiling

To establish a customer’s attitude to investment risk in relation to pensions, advisors may use automated calculators which calculate the customers’ attitude to various levels of risk having answered a series of questions. 

Profiling for marketing purposes

We currently do not profile our customers for marketing purposes however if in the future we choose to do this, we will seek your consent and tell you how you can object to profiling, including profiling for marketing purposes.

14. Marketing

We require your consent to market new products and services.  (For existing relationships we will not market new products or services to you but, per the chart above,  we may contact you in relation to the existing product or service we provided you, for example in order to discuss a change in your mortgage interest rate or a change to your insurance policy). For new products and services, we will ask you to consent at the beginning of the relationship.

15. Additional Processing

If we intend to further process your personal data for a purpose other than for which the data was collected, we will provide this information prior to processing this data. 

Privacy policy statement changes

Vision Financial Solutions Ltd may change this privacy policy from time to time. When such a change is made, we will post a revised version online. Changes will be effective from the point at which they are posted. It is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically so you’re aware of any changes. By using our services you agree to this privacy policy.

Version 1- 25^th May 2018